Enriching Your Life, One Visual at a Time

The No 1 Mistake People Make With Visual Learning.

Or do you find yourself visualizing scenes as images in your mind as well as remembering words?

Do you relive scenes of your life experiences in your mind: things you enjoyed (and did not enjoy so much)?

Of course you do!

How many of those memories flash through your mind in picture format? A lot - right?

Yes, we humans do think in pictures as much as, if not more than, we do in words.

So could it be that we learn by thinking in pictures also? I think so! - in fact Brain Science tells us we do.

Brain Scientists have discovered that our human brain is wired for visuals. Without the use of visuals we are only using about half of our brain.

So what is the #1 mistake so many people make with Visual Learning?

A great part of the practical side of Visual Learning is the creating of what are known as "sketch notes" or "doodle notes". These are notes we create using doodles and a limited amount of words - and here is the mistake: -

Many people, when they first learn of the "Visual Thinking and Learning Movement" react by saying:

But I can't draw!

Why do they say that?

They have probably seen sketch notes mostly created by artists. These often look more like artwork than a set of notes.

Instinctively they compare themselves with these artistic "notes" and decide it is something they cannot do.

Can you relate to this? I know I can.

Here's a question for you: how many hours did you spend as a child with paper and crayons making beautiful little pictures?

Pictures that YOU thought were beautiful -AND Pictures that MEANT something to YOU.

This happened before you learned to write words, and those pictures were your way of COMMUNICATING something in your life experience at that time. However as soon as you began learning to write, you may have started pushing those crayons aside.

So many of us did that.

It is time to get them out again!!

Visual Thinking is really all about:

Making visual notes using doodles or quick sketches that mean something to YOU.

Doodles that will help YOU to REMEMBER something when you look at them.

So don't let this #1 mistake stop you from visualizing your thoughts on paper!

Youcan make visualized notes that mean something to YOU.

And that will make learning easier, faster and more enjoyable for you!

Here's a challenge for you today:

Draw a simple circle, a square and a triangle (or all 7 of the shapes below).

Now have some fun putting them together to see what you can come up with.

(Hint: look around you. What can you see that uses one or more of these shapes?)

Let me know the results of your exercise in the comments below. I would love to hear about your experience.